Here”™s a radical notion ”“ the region does not need any more parking, especially not free parking. In the course of my long-time interest in the Interstate 287 corridor I acquired an aerial map of the entire span, from Suffern in Rockland to Interstate 95 near Rye. It is shocking to see how many acres are devoted to parking a personal vehicle. There are massive mall lots, office park lots, church lots, condominium lots and countless smaller paved lots for libraries, municipal functions and village shopping.
With 99 percent of all car trips in the U.S. now involving free parking, the combined area devoted to allowing you to park your car equals the state of Connecticut. Further, the average national value of that free parking space is approximately $1,000, equaling a total of an $85 billion annual subsidy for car drivers. The Urban Land Institute says that at least half of all spaces are vacant more than 40 percent of the time the businesses they serve are open.
Free parking has been such an ingrained part of the American psyche that the notion that it is not really free is hard to absorb. However, with gas prices whizzing past $4 a gallon the parking picture is beginning to change. Employers have begun to recognize the financial hit their employees take just getting to work. Wayne Hochwarter of the College of Business at Florida State University, who has studied workplace dynamics, says employees under financial stress are less productive. In a survey of 800 full-time workers dependent on their cars to get to work, 33 percent said that because of high gas prices they would quit their jobs to work closer to home if they could.
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Employers take note
This has got the attention of employers concerned about securing their work force. Mitigating measures being used to ease the pain are among the following: adding money to the paycheck, cost-of-living increase, gas-card rewards or membership in Sam”™s Club where gas is a few cents cheaper at the pump.
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Other employers have adopted a different strategy, helping employees to get out of their cars. Vans or shuttles to the nearest Metro-North train are becoming more common. Another plan that recognizes the value of free parking has begun to resurface. Parking “cash-out,” a plan developed more than a decade ago, now seems to have found a real audience. Based on the concept that free parking is not free, parking cash-out is a commuter benefit in which an employer offers employees the option to accept taxable cash income instead of a free or subsidized parking space at work. The idea is simple: Given a choice of cash or a parking space, many people would prefer the cash. This requires, of course, the employee to be more inventive in figuring out how to get to work. Carpooling is the obvious one but biking, walking and mass transit all are becoming more attractive as gas continues its climb.
Parking cash-out is also a benefit to employers. As already stated, parking spaces, especially in urban areas, are expensive. By reducing the number of spaces required for a given business, the employer saves money. If the business owns the parking area, opportunities for redevelopment become a possibility. “Patterns,” a publication of Westchester”™s Planning Department, introduced the concept of redevelopment of office-park land two decades ago but the time was not right. The department”™s latest land use plan, “Westchester 2025,” also includes the concept of office-park development of unnecessary parking areas. Building work-force housing on underutilized parking is an idea with a lot of appeal, given the lack of affordable housing in the region.
TransitChek, another commuter benefit devised several years ago, again ahead of its time, is enjoying a 23 percent increase since 2007. TransitCenter, based in New York City, manages the system which provides a reduced rate on all transit and eligible vanpool services in the New York metro area, and helps commuters out of the company parking lot and into transit.
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Here”™s a solution
Now here is the real twist to the tortuous parking saga. In the ongoing (read “interminable”) study of congestion on the I-287 corridor, transit alternatives being studied are presumed to need parking lots to function effectively. So here we have an intriguing contradiction. On the one hand we have the interest in getting people out of their parking spots through the inducement of parking cash-out so employers can make better use of the land and encourage more people to use transit. On the other hand, consultants trying to develop new transit along the corridor have assumed they need to find room for more parking.
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Here”™s the solution, friends. Make arrangements to use the parking we already have. For instance, at Knollwood Road, a potential transit station in Westchester, there are three contiguous lots, Staples, Syms and Bed, Bath and Beyond. Leasing spaces from existing lots has benefits all around. Commuters using the leased spaces are potential customers, generally occupying the spaces in less crowded times of the day ”“ a win-win solution. On Westchester Avenue the parking associated with the office campuses can be leased for transit riders as more employees working in those complexes opt for other ways to get to work through a cash-out plan. Parking has become a dynamic resource. The drama is just beginning.
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Surviving the Future explores a wide range of subjects to assist businesses in adapting to a new energy age. Maureen Morgan, a transit advocate, is on the board of Federated Conservationists of Westchester. Reach her at mmmorgan10@optonline.net.
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